Friday, April 4, 2008

Friday, April 4, 2008
Dark Moon
Saturn Retrograde
Pluto Retrograde
Rainy and cool

So, how many guys does it take to hang a door? Trust me, you don’t want to know. They had a heck of a time getting it to fit. Gee, you think if management had actually set up a measurement appointment like they were supposed to, it could have been avoided? Anyway, the guys themselves were very nice. They swore a bit, I didn’t blame them, and finally said, “Hey, I understand enough Gaelic to know what you’re saying!” and they all blushed.

The cats were barricaded in the bedroom. Iris hid, Elsa curled up in the window, and Violet did nothing but scream and scold until they were done. She was NOT having it. Wonder where she gets it from?

Got a carload of stuff to storage in the morning, packed some more during the Door Hang Derby, packed a bunch of weird stuff for a second carload in the afternoon. Is it ever going to look like I’m making progress here? I guess I just make excellent use of what little space I have; either that, or it reproduces every time I’m out of the apartment heading to storage. I’m also throwing out a lot, which is good. But there is just constantly MORE. And I’m not a “stuff” person. I’m a book person – so, yes, there are about 50 file boxes of books already in the unit – but I don’t buy a lot of “stuff”. Yet I just keep shoveling it out of all these nooks and crannies.

I also found cash tucked away in an envelope, which was a good thing. Glad I checked before tossing it!

Got a second carload of stuff to storage in the afternoon, and then I was done for the day! Met the new guys moving into the auto body shop next door – they’re very, very nice and want to be good neighbors, but it doesn’t change the fact that our scumbag landlords (who own both properties) must have paid off somebody, because it wasn’t supposed to be rented out again, due to zoning, only every time we asked, they kept moving the date. At least it’s not the illegal chop shop that was in and out for a few nights a few months back.

When I moved books around to give the Door Hang Gang room to work, I found a cultural anthropology text I didn’t know I had, and was about to buy. Whew! Glad I found it. I need it for the next two Gwen/Justin adventures.

I’m still trying to decide if I want to set The Balthazaar Treasure in the Caribbean, off the Cape Cod coast, or off of the tip of Long Island. There were plenty of shipwrecks in all three places. Setting it off Long Island would make life easier logistically for Gwen and some of the conflict she has to deal with in the course of the book, but do I really want to make her life easier? And if I set it there, I’ll have to go back out and re-walk it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s beautiful, but . . .I LOATHE the Hamptons. Or, I should say, most of the people who hang out there. These aren’t people I’d spend time with here in NYC—why would I waste all that time sitting in traffic to see them in the Hamptons? Too bad so many ugly-souled people take up so much beautiful landscape.

But if I could get in some research before the season starts, do a day trip, maybe . . .I don’t know. I have to look at some shipwreck maps and see what I can figure out. The Caribbean just feels like it’s been done so often. Cape Cod feels like I’m treading on the toes of someone who’s been helpful. I want to keep it up in the northeast. Maybe further up into Canada? Hey, Canadian readers? Know anything about shipwrecks off New Brunswick or Nova Scotia? I’d think it would be really short dive season, though.

I was definitely tired and cranky by evening, suffering from “Poor Me” Syndrome and battling the Doubt Demons. I really have no time for any of them right now, so I had my fifteen minute Pity Party and got back to work. I’m sure a lack of high-quality chocolate contributed.

I have to buckle down and finish the essay today, no matter what. I’m packed for the trip. I should have internet access, but if I don’t, you won’t hear from me until next week.

Wyatt’s getting on my case to finish his story in Old-Fashioned Detective Work, and he is just going to have to wait.

Julia, I’m NOT working on a series right now; I must have written the post badly for you to think so. I’ve worked on several NY-based series in the past few years, but I’m writing full-time and only dipping into the crew work here and there when the right opportunity comes up.

10 pages on the screenplay this morning. I wanted to do more, but the next whole section needs to be written as a piece. Maybe that will be my reward for doing good work on the essay.

Have a great weekend.

Devon

Script Frenzy – 48 pages out of 120 (40%)

Devon’s Bookstore:

5 in 10: Create 5 Short Stories in Ten Weeks by Devon Ellington. This ebooklet takes you from inspiration to writing to revision to marketing. By the end of ten weeks, you will have either 5 short stories or a good chunk of a novella complete. And it’s only 50 cents, USD. Here.

Writing Rituals: Ideas to Support Creativity by Cerridwen Iris Shea. This ebooklet contains several rituals to help you start writing, get you through writer’s block, and help send your work on its way. It’s only 39 cents USD. (Note: Cerridwen Iris Shea is one of the six names under which I publish). Here.

Full Circle: An Ars Concordia Anthology. Edited by Colin Galbraith. This is a collection of short stories, poems, and other pieces by a writers’ group of which I am a member. My story is “Pauvre Bob”, set at Arlington Race Track in Illinois. You can download it free here: